What do new ranch-style homes look like?

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Quick Answer

With an emphasis on openness, new ranch-style homes have few interior walls and many large glass windows. Typically one level, the house plans often feature low-pitched side gable or a hipped roof with simple and clean lines throughout the interior.

Decorative touches are kept to a minimum in ranch-style houses, with extensive glass serving as the primary type of flourish. Frequently, sliding glass doors lead out to a back patio designed to bring families together. The houses, usually in a U- or L-shape, wrap around an outdoor space where families and friends can gather, many times with a pool as the centerpiece. New ranch-style houses generally offer an attached garage.

The open floor plan features a family room, giving its occupants a space to play, work and visit together, while also affording spaces for privacy. Some higher-priced, modern ranch houses boast wood-beam ceilings, an abundance of hand-carved wood and ranch-inspired gates. Others have walls made entirely of glass and sweeping roof tops.

It is difficult to pinpoint commonalities among all modern ranch houses since most of them are individually custom built. The exception to this was a tract built in 2007 and 2008 in Shafter, California. With board and batten siding, large eaves, dovecotes and oversized porches, this development was modeled after previous 1970s houses. Notably, garages faced sideways as to not dominate the view of the front of houses.